Vikings Owner Slaps Taxpayers For Offering To Make Him Much Richer

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf gave his team's supporters and the state's taxpayers a cold, hard slap in the face yesterday.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

What did the populace do to make Wilf so irate?

They offered to build him a new, $1.1 billion, cash-rich stadium that would allow the team owner to make hundreds of millions of dollars from new stadium revenue and possibly much more from developing nearby real estate. The plan offered by Ramsey County would have the Vikings contributing $425 million (including a substantial loan from the National Football League), the state $350 million and $336 million from the county.

The StarTribune reported yesterday that the Vikings rejected the plan, the third one presented to the team, essentially because the Vikings will not make enough money from the new stadium as they would have from the previous proposals. The latest plan delivered to Gov. Mark Dayton shifted from using county sales taxes to user fees at the proposed stadium site in Arden Hills. Lester Bagley, the team's VP, was direct about the third effort, saying, “Our view is the earlier proposals were more viable.”

More viable for whom? Let's not forget that Minnesota is tied with Connecticut at sixth-worst among states with the biggest budget shortfalls ($3.8 billion). Let's also not forget that Wilf paid $600 million for the NFL team in 2005 and the Vikings are now worth $796 million. Moreover, in our next valuations this coming August, the value of the Vikings will be higher thanks to the league signing much richer broadcasting deals with ESPN, NBC, CBS and Fox recently.

Wilf's desire for a new stadium is understandable. The Metrodome is a relic. It's roof collapsed 14 months ago. But his customers are struggling to pay the bills and this guy just plucked down $19 million for a Park Avenue apartment. The whole thing smalls bad.

Wilf, whose lease at the Metrodome is year-t0-year at this point, is taking the possibility of moving his team to Los Angeles as far as he can.